


The Proper Care And Keeping Of Kitten Noirs

by thescuttlebugg



Series: Reinforcements Needed; Previous Superhero Experience Preferred [3]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Chat Noir Needs Adopted, Crack Treated Seriously, F/M, Fluff and Crack, Previous Superhero Incarnations, Proper Partner Care, Secret Identities, The Ladybugs Are Doing Their Best In The Meantime, passing the torch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-20
Updated: 2017-01-20
Packaged: 2018-09-18 16:28:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9393641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thescuttlebugg/pseuds/thescuttlebugg
Summary: “Chat?” She blinks at him from the video screen, expression both concerned and wary. She’s so pretty. He’s so worried. He shows her the front of the envelope.And then the back.“It was stuck to the outside of my bedroom window,” he says, and watches her eyes widen very briefly, and then narrowvery sharply.“Where are you?” she asks.“My lady, I’mcompromised–”“Where are you?”





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SsilverStreak](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SsilverStreak/gifts).



> This fic is based on [some meta](http://thescuttlebugg.tumblr.com/tagged/nathaliebug-and-theo-noir/chrono) I came up with and [SsilverStreak](http://archiveofourown.org/users/SsilverStreak/pseuds/SsilverStreak) made a proper fic out of. I have restrained myself to cheering them on from the sidelines, mostly, but today I was struck by a sudden and powerful urge to revisit the concept. 
> 
> SO ON THAT NOTE, THE FOLLOWING:

The envelope stuck to the outside of Adrien’s highest window pane is thick and durable and sealed with red wax with a ladybug stamped into the center. It is addressed, in dark red ink and very neat penmanship, _“to my successor, C/O my kitten”._

It’s not exactly particle physics figuring out it’s not meant for him. 

Or that someone knows his identity. 

Taking it to Ladybug is a terrible idea. Taking it to Ladybug is almost definitely a trap. 

But–

“LB,” he croaks into his communicator, six blocks over and tucked into a hidden corner of a convenient and easily defendable rooftop. 

“Chat?” She blinks at him from the video screen, expression both concerned and wary. She’s so pretty. He’s so worried. He shows her the front of the envelope. 

And then the back. 

“It was stuck to the outside of my bedroom window,” he says, and watches her eyes widen very briefly, and then narrow _very sharply_. 

“Where are you?” she asks. 

“My lady, I’m _compromised_ –” 

_“Where are you?”_

He tells her. Of course he tells her. He’d tell her anything she wanted him to, just like he _doesn’t_ tell her anything she doesn’t want him to. She shows up red and shining in the dark, bright and beautiful and stronger than anyone else in this city, and takes the envelope from him. He wants to shred it up, Cataclysm it into ash, but he lets her. 

She opens the envelope. There’s a list inside. It’s a long, long list, hand-written in that same very neat penmanship and requiring an unexpected amount of unfolding. 

It has a title, and that title is _The Proper Care And Keeping Of Kitten Noirs._

Chat tries to read over her shoulder; Ladybug presses the letter to her chest and shoots him a look. 

“A: it’s addressed to me,” she says. “B: if it’s freaky akuma magic, it better only get _one_ of us.” 

“But you’re the _worst possible one_ for it _to_ get!” Chat protests. He’s not wrong, obviously, but Ladybug ignores him. It’s her name on the letter. If it’s a trap, it’s a trap for _her_. 

Chat takes enough of her hits as it is. 

Except … 

_Section One,_ the letter says, _Nutrition: Favorite Foods, Kitten; Favorite Foods, Kwami; Ideal Caloric Intake Per Patrol; Emergency Kwami Recharge Options._

 _Section Two,_ the letter says, _Emotional Support: Physical Assurance; Verbal Affirmation; Bonding Opportunities; Promises And The Keeping Thereof._

 _Section Three,_ the letter says, _Training: Defense; Staff Vs. Sword; Increasing Patience And Focus; Alternate Applications of Cataclysm._

 _Section Four,_ the letter says, _Emergency Communication: Dead Drops; Burner Phones; Secure Messaging Apps; Kwami._

 _Section Five,_ the letter says, and Ladybug looks up at Chat in disbelief. Every section fills up at least a full page, if not more, and there’s at least another six or seven of them in here. She might ask him if this was a poorly-planned joke, if not for how scared he’d looked when he’d first messaged her; if not for the worry and nervousness on his face now. He looks like she just fed herself to a dinosaur again. 

She flips through the remaining sections. There’s . . . going to be some involved reading. She might need to take notes. 

The last page is a letter. 

_My Dear Successor,_

_Your kwami’s name is Tikki. Her favorite food is cookies. Every time you’ve doubted yourself, she told you that you were enough. When you cast Miraculous Ladybug, it feels the same way that seeing Chat Noir for the first time did._

_If this information is not enough for you to allow my advice the benefit of the doubt, you can go to the library and look me up in the old newspapers. I was last active nine years ago, and wielded the Ladybug Miraculous for two years prior to that; I spent almost the entirety of this time in Paris. To the best of my knowledge, no other information about my efforts on behalf of the Miraculous were preserved, unless the Guardian recorded something of myself and my partner for personal reference._

_I assume you have discovered by now that you were not the first Ladybug, and I certainly was not either. The earliest I ever saw proof of operated in Egypt at least five thousand years ago, but anecdotal evidence suggests that was not the origin of the Miraculous either, and the kwami, at the very least, are far older than that. There have been very many Ladybugs, as there have been very many Chat Noirs and Kittens, and also very many Moths and Butterflies. We are none of us like the others, except for how very like the others we all are, as Tikki once told me._

_People forget us. It is the nature of the magic, and unavoidable. They forget us, and they let our stories fall out of the telling and forget to preserve them. When a new hero appears some small instinctive part of them accepts that yes, of course it should be this way, but they do not remember why they accept it._

_Therefore, in all of Paris–saving the Guardian–I am the singular person who knows that a previous carrier of the Black Cat Miraculous ever lived and breathed in this city. And I would know that ring anywhere, on any wielder. Your Kitten carries it well, but recklessly, and I have enclosed in this letter all that I have known of both him and his own predecessor in the interest of helping you do what every Ladybug should: protect the partner that would die for them, and make sure that they do NOT._

_In time, Paris and the world will forget your Ladybug and his Chat Noir as well. You could forget too, if you chose to. If it is easier. It is a path you may choose to take. Until such a time as that choice becomes relevant in your life, however, and whether or not you take any of the rest of my advice to heart, my successor, there is one thing I must implore of you: I do not carry a Miraculous any longer. I can neither purify or even fight an akuma, and I cannot fix what is left broken. All I can do is try to keep my own stupid tomcat out of things, and ask that you take the best care you can of your partner–of my kitten._

_If I had more than this to give you, I would._

_Sincerely, Your Predecessor_

Ladybug looks at the letter for a much longer time than it actually takes to read it. Chat Noir squirms with restless worry in front of her the whole time. She wants to soothe him, but she isn’t sure she’s feeling very soothed herself. She does not know who could’ve left this letter. She does not know how much to tell him _about_ the letter. 

She also does not know if a similar letter may turn up on her balcony window one day or even already be there waiting for her to come home from tonight’s patrol, addressed and signed in green ink and sealed with a neon pawprint. Waiting for Chat, and full of section after section about _The Care And Keeping Of Baby Bugs_. 

“It’s just a letter, Chat,” she says finally, Chat’s ears immediately pricking at the sound of her voice. 

“My _bedroom window_ ,” he stresses. Ladybug looks at him again. His mother? Maybe? His father? Or maybe an older sibling, if Miraculous users are usually their age. Someone close enough to him to have seen his ring, and close enough to feel a sense of responsibility for him. She tries to picture some other Ladybug fussing over Chat, but the best she can do is to try to imagine herself nine or ten years older, and “taller with longer pigtails” is about the best she’s got for even that. 

Chat Noir is taller and broader than her. He’s scared a lot, but always brave and always beside her. It takes literal _magic_ –mind-controlling, will-defying _magic_ –to stop him. Nothing else ever has. 

She’s never really thought too much about what an adult might think about him. Does he look small, to an adult? Does he look like he needs taken care of? 

Does he really seem like a “kitten” to her unnamed predecessor? 

Would she think any differently, if ten years from now Manon or one of the neighborhood kids suddenly showed up wearing that ring and started running around Paris with a tail and ears and more loyalty than common sense? 

“It’s okay, kitty,” Ladybug says kindly, folding up the letter. It’s easier to put away, now that she knows how to take it out. “Hey. Have you eaten yet?”

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [Tumblr](http://thescuttlebugg.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
